Pontypool Magazine August

The Book Corner
Book review by
Louise Mumford
Hungry by Grace Dent
Hungry is a memoir about food, class and
families and follows the journey of well-known
restaurant critic Grace Dent from her working-class
childhood home in Carlisle to the
multimillion-pound London restaurants that
she reviewed.
Above all, it is an unsentimental but
heart-breaking tribute to the relationship between
Grace Dent and her father, George, as he
slowly slips out of reach into dementia.
In a media career spanning more than two
decades, Dent is best known as a restaurant
critic and the early part of Hungry revisits the
ways in which family life shaped her relationship
with food.
Ex-soldier George teaches her to cook with
Campbell’s tinned soup. If you remember the
eighties then this is a loving tribute to the convenience
food of that era: families having their
tea on their laps watching the television…
which only had a few channels to choose from.
Hungry is, as you’d expect, very, very funny
(“Sadly, Mother’s aim to be posh was thwarted
at every turn by our next-door neighbours,
who were resolutely common”).
There are echoes of Caitlin Moran in
her tales of arriving in the world of
London glossy magazines, where she is
intimidated by sleek girls called Taffeta
Flinty-Wimslow who only eat salad.
It is, however, in the description of
George’s dementia where Dent’s writing
really shines and she describes her
gnawing grief as the disease strips her
father of his memories and personality
as well as the small moments of connection
that offer a way through.
By turns comic, nostalgic and also
incredibly sad, Hungry is an exploration
of how food binds us together:
the meals we take as families, the food
shared with friends, the sneaky chocolate
bars sneaked into school bags. A
book to be devoured.